recipeworld

As I promised, a recipe for yesterday’s home fries. These are easily adaptable to your own tastes: some people like their potatoes with peppers in them, along with the onions. Some like them a little spicier: add more cayenne pepper. It’s really up to you, but in the end the sweetness of the caramelized onions and the starchiness of the potatoes makes an excellent side dish to fried eggs. When I was growing up, we sometimes had this meal as “breakfast for dinner.” I always looked forward to it.
My mother’s hint is to always throw in an extra potato “for the pot.” So if you’re serving four people, use five potatoes. This recipe serves two, but it doubles or even triples very easily. You may have to work in batches depending on the size of your skillet.

Home Fries
2 tbsp. olive oil, separated
1 tbsp. butter
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 starchy potatoes, like Yukon Gold, sliced into rounds ¼ inch thick
1 tbsp. sweet paprika
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
salt
Heat one of the tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter and allow it to melt in the oil. When the foam subsides, add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook only one minute.
Add the other tablespoon of oil. Add all of the sliced potatoes and toss with the onions and oil. Spread the onion and potato mixture out across the skillet and turn the heat down to medium. Cover and allow to cook for five-ten minutes, until the potatoes have crisped and the onions have begun to caramelize.
Add the paprika, cayenne pepper and salt to taste, and then toss the potatoes so that the other side can cook.
When all of the potatoes have cooked through, cook uncovered for an additional three-five minutes.

Comfort food is a funny, funny thing. Sometimes the strangest combinations end up being absolutely delicious.

Take one of my favorite comfort foods. The combination of boiled potatoes, plain yogurt, mustard and chives should not be nearly as delicious as it is. It’s a simple recipe I learned a long time ago from a French family, but I still make it whenever I want something hot and simple for dinner. I used a big potato in this picture, but the presentation is a lot nicer with little, red-skinned new potatoes.

Chive-Mustard Potatoes 

½ lb. new potatoes

2 cups plain yogurt

2 tbsp. Dijon mustard

2 tbsp. chives

Boil the potatoes until cooked through, about 20-25 minutes. Drain and toss with salt. Place in a large serving bowl.

Combine the yogurt, mustard and chives, adjusting amounts for your preference (I like it spicy and chivey).

Serve potatoes with a bowl of sauce on the side. Some charcuterie (cold cuts like prosciutto, salami and ham) and a fresh, green salad make good accompaniments.

Note: You can also mash the potatoes: increase the sauce proportions by half and mash with the potatoes, adding a pat of butter to each serving.

When I was 14 years old, I came to France for three months. I lived in the North, which is not a very touristy location. It gets dark early in the winter, and it rains almost every day. Luckily, I had a warm and welcoming host family who gave me fluffy slippers to wear around the house, lent me a rain jacket when I realized I had left mine at home and, maybe most importantly, introduced me to a recipe for gratin dauphinoise.

Gratin dauphinoise is real winter food. It warms you up and keeps you full. Since leaving the North, I only make it on special occasions, usually at Christmas. I tinkered with the recipe a bit… mostly because I forgot some of it, and partly because I’m not so picky about peeling potatoes first. My version may not be 100% authentic, but it’s the one that my aunt and uncle beg for every year at the holidays.

Gratin Dauphinoise

5 or 6 large yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed and thinly sliced (Note: you can keep the potato slices in a bowlful of warm water with a squeeze of lemon while you slice them all, so that they don’t become brown.)

3 cups of grated swiss or emmental cheese

1/2 cup of grated gruyère cheese (Note: you can use all gruyère if you want to. It will bring the best flavor, however emmental or swiss are tasty as well, and not quite as expensive.)

1 egg

1 cup each whole milk and heavy cream

nutmeg, salt and pepper

Grease a glass baking dish with butter. Place one layer of potatoes along the bottom of the dish. Overlap slightly so that the entire bottom of the dish is covered. Sprinkle salt, pepper and nutmeg over the potato layer, and top with a layer of grated swiss cheese.

Follow with another layer of potatoes, this time sprinkling the layer just with black pepper. Continue alternating layers (potato, pepper and cheese) until you reach the last layer of potatoes. Sprinkle salt, pepper and nutmeg over the top layer of potatoes. Set aside, keeping the grated gruyère for later.

In a saucepan, heat the cream and milk together until hot but not boiling, and add another sprinkle of nutmeg. Temper the liquid with the egg, and pour the entire contents of the pan over the gratin. Top the gratin with the reserved cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 F until the potatoes are soft, about half an hour. Remove foil and turn up the oven to 425 F. Bake until the top layer of cheese is golden brown. Cool for half an hour before serving in order to make slicing easier.

Note: recipe can be prepared and baked at 350 and the last step can be reserved until just before serving.